Homeopathy - a tool of natural selection

In the dark news flow of recent months, the RAS memorandum on the recognition of homeopathy as pseudoscience can be called a long-awaited triumph of common sense. However, everything did not go as smoothly as expected, and homeopathy had its own advocates.

If someone missed: this Monday the Russian Academy of Sciences published a memorandum on the recognition of homeopathy as pseudoscience . The authors of the document emphasized that with seeming harmlessness, homeopathy is not such and represents a dangerous delusion: instead of effective pharmacological treatment, homeopathic supporters spend considerable money on ineffective "drugs" - drugs that do not contain active substances (or have a concentration of active substances close to zero). Such a "treatment" can lead to serious consequences, even death.
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In fact, the commission to combat pseudoscience and falsification of scientific research under the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences dealt a powerful blow to the orderly ranks of believers in the healing power of chalk tablets.

One member of the commission to combat pseudoscience of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian bioinformatics, popularizer of science, scientific journalist and writer, laureate of the Enlightener Prize, Alexander Panchin told us that discontent with homeopathy in the Russian Academy of Sciences was ripe for a long time. “Individual members of the working group and the Commission have been talking about the pseudoscience of homeopathy for many years,” he said. The significant importance of Panchin is the appearance of a new instrument in the RAS arsenal - memorandums, through which the Academy and specifically the commission on pseudoscience can broadcast the position of scientists on various issues for society.

One of the reasons for the release of the memorandum, Alexander Panchin, called the court of homeopaths with the magazine "Around the World" for publishing the article "Dissolved Magic", which criticized homeopathy. By the way, homeopaths lost the court, “and the Ministry of Education and Science nominated the National Council on Homeopathy for anti-prize for spreading pseudoscience”.

What is homeopathy

Wikipedia gives the following definition of homeopathy:

“Homeopathy is a type of alternative (pseudoscientific, ed.) Medicine, which involves the use of highly diluted drugs, which, presumably, cause symptoms in healthy people, similar to the symptoms of the patient's illness. The concept of treatment according to the pseudo-scientific principle “similar to similar” (Latin similia similibus curantur) is opposed by homeopaths to the principles of rational pharmacotherapy. ”

Homeopathy as a type of alternative medicine originated about 200 years ago. Then the knowledge of scientists and physicians regarding the structure of matter was much less extensive than it is now, and among them there were various “progressive” ideas: from the “memory” of water to the infinite divisibility of matter. By the way, the latter had the right to life, taking into account the development of science in those times. As a result, homeopathy has resulted in an alternative form of medicine based on the use of ultra-low doses of drugs that cause high doses of manifestations of the same disease in healthy people.

In addition, the doctrine of homeopathy is at the crossroads of traditional medicine (which in some cases is, nevertheless, effective) and some esotericism built on the ideas of "potentiation" or "dynamization."

So, homeopaths believe that shaking and rubbing insoluble substances in any environment activates the "vital" energy and enhances the healing properties.

The "vital" energy of homeopathic remedies is worth mentioning separately. The idea of ​​the existence of "vital" energy stems from the teachings of vitalism (from the Latin. Vitalis - life), according to which in every organism there is an immaterial supernatural force that controls life phenomena, or simply - "Life Force". The theory of vitalism postulates that processes in biological organisms depend on this force, and cannot be explained in terms of physics, chemistry or biochemistry .

This could be the end of the publication, because such a fat nail in the lid of the coffin of homeopathy in the modern world in the eyes of a sane person is even deliberately hard to come up with, but we will continue.

Proceeding from the ideas of vitalism, homeopaths in the manufacture of their drugs do not use doses of active ingredients to influence, as they consider, useless biochemical processes in the body, but treat “like with like” ultra-low doses and charge “vitality” with their “preparations”.

It is necessary to clearly separate homeopathy and traditional medicine, which was done in the RAS. Traditional medicine, for the most part, is built on the use of herbs and other natural substances and components that may have a healing effect. The low effectiveness of traditional medicine is explained by the fact that in natural sources the concentration of active substances necessary for treatment may not be sufficient, however, they are present in measurable doses, which cannot be said of homeopathic preparations. Another phenomenon, the placebo effect, which proponents of homeopathy like to refer to, is a medically documented phenomenon with proven, albeit inconsistent, efficacy. Placebo - controlled misrepresentation of the patient when under the guise of a powerful drug he is given a dummy. Homeopathy is a mixture of obscurantism with the unproven postulates of two centuries ago , according to which homeopathic medicines often have even greater efficacy than drugs and methods of traditional medicine. Well, just as food for thought: at the time when the homeopathic teaching was becoming established, doctors were still not aware of, for example, the need to sterilize an instrument. Conclusions about the "scientific" of this phenomenon, everyone can make their own.

Adherents of homeopathy

Even before the publication of the Memorandum of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in November 2016, the Kommersant publication prepared a large amount of material on homeopaths under the heading “A Grain of Sciences” , although how much homeopathy has to do with science remains only a guess. This material contains an interview with one of the first homeopaths of the USSR, and then of Russia - Lyubov Lurie.

In order to give a clearer understanding of what is behind the ideology of homeopathy and how adherents of this pseudoscience justify the imaginary efficiency of their methods, it is worth citing the explanations of Lurie, which she gave to the journalist "Kommersant":

Ordinary doctors treat according to the principle of opposites. If the patient has a headache, the doctor gives him a painkiller. If bleeding, then hemostatic. Such an assignment is given to everyone, nonindividually, and from this very many complications. After all, any pain is a signal from the organs: something is wrong. How else can they tell us about this? If you close a symptom, the organ will look for other ways, how to express a complaint: a headache is cured - here you have stomach problems, a stomach cure is a rash on the skin.

Recognizing the importance of the law of similarity, Lurie teaches us to interpret it as widely as possible: anything can be a medicine, and the more a person’s life resembles the material from which it is made, the stronger the effect. “For example, for some patients I give medicine from an oyster shell. Look: a clam lives inside the shell, and a pearl can hide inside it. Oysters are born in the ocean in the form of monads: after fertilization, they are carried away into the ocean, and the only thing they have is a leg. And until this leg is attached in the rock, the shell does not form a shell. All this has parallels with the problems of some patients. When they feel bad, they want to curl up, cover themselves with a blanket, in a word, be inside the sink. Such people are afraid not to find their place in life, and because of this they have runny nose and sinusitis. ”

“Why does the similarity law work? Because the Almighty has built this whole world on it, ”says Lurie. “Everything like that is attracted. So you didn’t come to me accidentally: it means that we are somehow attracted. ”

From the Kommersant material it is clear that the science of homeopathy is out of the question. Even the main ideologue of the movement in the age of information technology, the availability of scientific work and knowledge, refers to the will of the Higher Forces and gives near-biblical analogies in defense of their business. Why business?

Pharmacological and homeopathic lobby - two sides of the same coin

Homeopaths love to refer to the omnipresent pharmacological lobby, which, as if ZOG or the Eye of Sauron, ensures that healthy people are not left and their pockets are always empty. Of course, because of the purchase of expensive “poison” in the form of modern medicines.

We recognize that pharmacological companies are not always clean on hand. While the pharmaceutical corporations “break up” prices with five zeros for a course of essential drugs, people who lack the funds to buy original medicines have to be content with not always high-quality generics, or even make iodine reticulation level procedures. In defense of manufacturers, it is worth noting that the development and licensing of new drugs is a process more similar to the passage of nine bureaucratic circles of hell, on each of which not one hundred thousand, or even millions of dollars have to be paid. What should not be denied is the fact that these medicines save lives, allowing them to live much longer than is taken away by nature or by chance.

On the other hand, there is a homeopathic industry - it is already the industry, with its own lobby, budgets and business plans. Surprisingly, their goal (with all their desire to be knights in shining armor) fully coincides with the goal of pharmacological companies - to make money.

But it is necessary to clearly distinguish between the capitalist appetites of the producers of medicines for traditional medicine, and the "alternative" homeopaths. If the former use clinically proven and proven drugs, then homeopaths for the same, and sometimes tens of times more cost, sell elixirs, which consist entirely of water and sugar.

In recognition of Lurie herself in an interview with Kommersant, she is engaged in "medical" practice:

The fact that homeopathy is more effective than going to the polyclinic, Love explains the high prices of care in its clinic. Primary treatment costs 20 thousand rubles, and for homeopathic centers this is almost the norm . “This includes two months of observation and one more reception in the middle: I give my phone number and answer all questions. Isn’t ordinary doctors using medications? They need to take packs, and then still treat the complications. And a high potency homeopathic medicine is enough to take once a month. ”

The annual subscription service in the metropolitan homeopathic clinic costs $ 2,000. To eat every day, and tasty, everyone wants.

And if the homeopathic centers were engaged only in the treatment of migraine, mild cold and an increase in potency. Unfortunately, homeopaths seek to penetrate into areas permeated by human suffering and hopelessness: in oncology and treatment of HIV.

Officially, homeopaths in Russia are forbidden to “cure” these and a number of other diseases, but Lurie actively showed her own appetites in this area. After all, a person doomed to an agonizing death will give everything in exchange for the ghostly possibility of salvation, when real medicine can no longer help him. Here various “healers”, “psychics” and adherents of “alternative medicine” come to light.

When a doctor removes blocks of vital energy, cells begin to produce their own antibiotics and antiviral drugs, which, according to Lurie, can save from anything - even from HIV. “A very good friend, an Israeli, Jeremy Sher, went to Africa, where the AIDS epidemic is raging now. He believes that the Earth is a living organism that hurts just like a person. But if a person has this manifested by a runny nose or diarrhea, then on Earth - in the form of epidemics, wars, global catastrophes. And so Jeremy is sure: if he treats people where there is an epidemic, he will cure the planet itself. Powerful uncle! And you know, he already has dozens of Africans completely cured of AIDS. ”

Even if we close our eyes to the activities of individuals, the fact remains that homeopathy has penetrated too deeply into our society, and the RAS Memorandum is a belated reaction to the growing obscurantism in society; whether it is talk about the dangers of GMOs that cause cancer and other Egyptian executions, the denial of HIV or the recognition of homeopathy as a working medical practice.

The Power of Pseudoscience

Almost immediately after the publication by the Commission of the RAS of the memorandum on the recognition of homeopathy as pseudoscience, a response followed. And if the articles and notes on any specialized leprosariums for homeopaths were expected, no one expected the words of the deputy head of the Ministry of Healthcare Tatyana Yakovleva.

Ms. Yakovleva stated that homeopathy was “officially recognized” by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, and that it was necessary to fight uneducated homeopaths. That is, the deputy head subtly separates the "educated" fans of pacifier tablets from the "uneducated."

Citing Yakovlev: “If the reception is conducted by a specialist who does not know homeopathy , who did not pass specialization and training, then this is pseudoscience .”

Alexander Pankin commented for Geektimes the words of the deputy head and her assigning homeopathy to traditional medicine. “In its characteristics, homeopathy is very different from traditional medicine. Homeopathy is not a herbal treatment. This treatment is based on the principles formulated by the physician Hahnemann. One of them says that the more diluted the substance, the better it treats. Homeopathy trades large companies, and the adherents of homeopathy themselves can be compared to healers who “treat” by the imposition of hands, ”he said.

It is likely that the deputy head does not feel the difference between traditional medicine, homeopathy, the imposition of hands and loading water through the TV under the piercing gaze of Kashpirovsky. In the light of the foregoing about the origins and postulates of this pseudoscience, the statement about the "knowledge of homeopathy" does cause a break in the pattern.

Petr Talantov, director of the Evolution Educational Foundation, commented on the words of the deputy head for Geektimes. “Homeopathy and herbal treatments are completely different things. Phytopreparations contain significant amounts of active ingredient. Many substances used in medicine today, such as digitalis, were originally obtained from plants. Homeopathic preparations, in turn, are an absolute empty, and do not contain any herbs or any other active ingredients, ”he said.

The zest of the situation with the statement of the deputy head adds to the piquancy of the fact that it is precisely against the “teaching of homeopathy” that they speak at the RAS, recognizing such “teaching” of false science. The circle is closed.

By the way, WHO disowned the recognition of homeopathy. At the request of the Evolution Education Fund, WHO official speaker Gregory Hartl stated that the organization does not deal with the effectiveness of traditional and alternative medicine and that approval of various alternative medicine practices, including homeopathy, is outside the mandate of WHO. WHO Russian expert, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Medicine, Professor Anisimov V.N. commented on Hartl ’s answer for Gazety.ru: “WHO recognizes only the existence of homeopathy along with other phenomena of unscientific medicine, such as traditional, complementary or alternative medicine, but it is not claimed that WHO has evidence of the effectiveness and safety of homeopathy.”

Following the odious performance of Yakovleva, information appeared in the media about the dismissal of Denis Roshchin - an employee of the Central Research Institute for the Organization and Informatization of Health, which signed the Memorandum of the RAS Commission. According to Roshchina, he was dismissed from the institute “on a call” from the personnel department, and for reasons of dismissal, he is listed “on his own will,” which he, naturally, did not express. When Roshchin asked why he was fired, he was directly answered: "for participating in the preparation of a memorandum on pseudoscience of homeopathy."

The scientist says that he is not sure that there is pressure on the institute “from above” - this was an initiative of his own leadership, since the fear of “crossing the road” to the homeopathic lobby really exists among the medics. All this happened even taking into account the fact that the memorandum does not have legal force and is a call to action on the part of the Russian Academy of Sciences to various ministries and departments, an expression of the position of the commission at the Academy.

On the other hand, Alexander Pachchin confirms that the director of the institute, the former health minister Vladimir Starodubov (he held the post from September 30, 1998 to July 5, 1999) could play a significant role in Roshchina’s dismissal. According to Panchin, neither he nor his colleagues on the commission, except for Denis Roshchin, felt any pressure: “The case with Denis is outrageous, but it is exceptional. Apparently, the case is in the position of the director of the institute, from which Denis Roshchin was fired, - former Minister of Health Vladimir Starodubov. His name is mentioned in Appendix No. 3 to the memorandum in the context of the role he played in introducing homeopathy into the system of national health care. ”

Here is a part of the text Alexander was talking about:

The order was signed by the Minister of Health of the RSFSR V.I. Kalinin, of whom almost nothing is known, except that on September 19, 1990, he was appointed minister, and on July 11, 1991, in a planned manner (after electing the president of the RSFSR), became acting officer and remained in this status until December. He signed the order ten days before the end of his full ministerial powers. There is no mention of a scientific or clinical rationale for homeopathy in the order. But in it specific instructions are given on the introduction of homeopathy to a number of officials, including two future Russian health ministers - O.V. Rutkovsky and V.I. Starodubov, as well as the future Deputy Minister V.N. Shabalin. Although in open sources there is no information about their explicit support for homeopathy, they could hardly have been sufficiently skeptical about what they themselves had implemented. The 1991 order gave the green light to the development of homeopathy in the RSFSR and, by succession, in the Russian Federation. On its basis, the orders of the Ministry of Health of Russia in 1992 and 1994 established the Commission for Homeopathic Remedies at the Pharmacopoeia and Pharmacological Committees.

Based on this, it can be assumed that the dismissal of Denis Roshchina was a personal initiative of the Director of the Institute Starodubov, who in the 90s was engaged in promoting homeopathy at the state level.

According to the director of the Evolution Foundation, his organization is constantly confronted with opposition to educational work at various levels, in the annex to the last memorandum of the RAS. “There are some unpleasant episodes. These are mainly cases when our lecture halls are suddenly, a few days before, they are being kicked out of the premises that they promised to provide. It is difficult for me to explain that he is in charge of the decision makers of the libraries and universities. In our lectures there is not a hint of politics and even the branches of science close to it - sociology, political science - we do not touch. It seems to me that in our time, just in case, people are afraid of everything at all, no matter how it happens, ”said Talents.

He also does not exclude the likelihood of pressure on members of the RAS Commission and other individuals opposing homeopathy, as was the case with Roshchin. “The dismissal of Denis Roshchina was the first negative consequence (publication of the memorandum - ed.). We understood that there would be opposition. Homeopathy is, first of all, a lot of money. According to various estimates, sales of homeopathic medicines in Russia amount to 7–9 billion rubles a year, ”said Talantov.

Even despite the contradictory statements of high-ranking officials and the general alertness of physicians who do not want to “substitute” in the fight against homeopaths, there is hope that entire departments in pharmacies, as well as conversations about the scientific nature of homeopathy, will eventually fade away. According to Panchin, the general reaction in the enlightened circles to the memorandum was more than positive. “I received extremely encouraging comments from fellow scientists,” he said.